Sunday, March 18, 2007

15 seconds of podcast fame Astoundingly, Tom Johnson and co-conspirators have taken the "is tech writing boring?" discussion all the way into a podcast: Is Technical Writing Boring? Tech Writers as Information Architects. In this week[base ']s podcast, Heidi and I consider a probing question: Is technical writing boring? We discuss a post that spawned a lot of comments and exchanges. We also talk about an article on information architecture in the Tech Comm journal. . . [Tech Writer Voices] The post that spawned the comments was, of course, mine back on February 12, when I said that I found talking about technical writing boring. But I guess it makes for more interesting conversation to answer the question "Is technical writing boring?" Whatever. I'm always surprised by the statements I make that are picked up and run with (rarely, I might add). I know other authors who have experienced the same thing: Of all the things I've said and written, why is that the one people care about? Of additional interest, Tom also chats about the recent issue of Technical Communication co-edited by Andrea Ames and Michelle Corbin, both IBM information architects with whom I have the privilege of working. 8:48:39 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Oh, no, not again Will Kelly posted a wondrously appropriate rant about recent talk on the Internets about technical writer certifications (yes, again): Five Reasons Why Managers Don't Care about Technical Writer Certification . . . Instead of focusing on the need for technical writer certifications, the technical writer field by and large needs to leave their cubicles and become more engaged in the product development process. Get Real.  - Will [Will Kelly] I couldn't agree more. I can't fathom why people get so worked up about the need for certification. My position is the same it's been for five years at least: When hiring managers start asking for certification, then we can start looking at what that might mean. So long as they're not asking, folks are wasting valuable time and electrons on the discussion. 8:39:10 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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